Session Information
26 SES 03 C, School Leadership and COVID-19: The Aftermath Experiences
Paper Session
Contribution
This paper builds on a paper presented at ECER 2021 which drew on the first phase of a small-scale longitudinal study examining how current and former students on the Into Headship (IH) programme in Scotland supported their school communities during the first lockdown in the UK, with a particular emphasis on children and young people (CYP) considered to be vulnerable through disability, poverty, being looked after or otherwise disadvantaged. A key finding deriving from phase 1 was the expanding role that schools played in serving their communities, impacting on the role of aspiring headteachers and their sense of identity.
It has been well documented that global inequalities, as identified by Wilkinson and Pickett (2018), have been magnified through the pandemic. An extensive range of commentators highlights the catastrophic global impact of the restrictions and disruption to schooling posed by the pandemic on the mental health and wellbeing of children and on their learning (Lee, 2020; Mowat, in press, 2023a, 2023b; Shum, Skripkauskaite, Pearcey, Waite, & Creswell, 2021; UNESCO et al., 2020; UNICEF, 2021; UNICEF Data, 2020; World Health Organisation, 2020).
Harris and Jones (2020) argue that most existing leadership preparation programmes will need a radical re-think to remain relevant, highlighting that the pandemic has brought to the fore the importance of relational trust and context responsive leadership, dependent on distributive forms of leadership and recognising ‘the wealth of additional expertise, knowledge and local capacity’ (p. 246)) of the community. Other commentators call on the need for adaptive and/or emotionally intelligent leadership (Beauchamp et al., 2021). Fullan (2020) argues that Covid-19 has exposed the fault-lines that were already present in education systems across the world but also provides an opportunity to re-imagine what might be possible. Sahlberg (2020), however, cautions that, unless we stand back and re-imagine a ‘new normal,’ and, more importantly, focus on the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of change rather than just the ‘what,’ it is likely that schools, post-pandemic, will revert towards the status-quo (Mowat, 2023).
Whilst much attention has been devoted to losses in learning brought about by the pandemic and to learning recovery, increasingly attention is turning towards the socio-emotional wellbeing of CYP (Lee, 2020; Mowat, in press; OECD, 2020). UNICEF (2021) highlights the fragility of support systems for children during this period and how the hardships experienced fell disproportionally on the most disadvantaged (p. 16). School leaders have had to navigate an unprecedented landscape of complex and rapid change and therefore the quality of headship preparation programmes becomes crucial in ensuring that prospective headteachers can rise to the challenge.
This small-scale empirical study is supported by a BELMAS grant and focusses on Into Headship, a masters-level programme delivered within a single academic year in partnership with Education Scotland. Through examination of the ways in which IH students supported their school communities during and in the aftermath of lockdown (with a specific, but not sole, focus on more vulnerable CYP), the study seeks to ascertain the degree to and ways in which engagement with the IH programme had prepared them to meet the challenges in order to inform the development of headship programmes in Europe and beyond.
Method
This paper focusses on the second phase of a longitudinal, qualitative study, with phase one being an online survey based on an open-ended questionnaire administered to two cohorts of Into Headship students conducted in June 2020 towards the end of the first lockdown in the UK. 46 students responded to the survey. Phase 2, conducted in Dec 2022/Jan 2023, focusses on the period beyond the initial lockdown and, drawing from the findings of phase 1, has a specific focus on the wellbeing of the school community – pupils, staff and engagement with families. It has been conducted via. individual interviews with eight respondents to the initial survey, drawn from the secondary, primary and special education sectors. In addition to reflecting on how they had supported the wellbeing of their school communities beyond the initial lockdown, participants were provided with their response to the survey (phase 1) and asked to reflect on how close to reality their initial perceptions of the challenges to be faced as schools emerged from lockdown had been and whether there were challenges that had not been anticipated. Three focus group discussions have also been held with participants from each of these sectors. The focus group discussion had a broader focus, examining the response of the Scottish Government to Covid recovery; insights about leading in times of crisis; and insights to inform the development of the IH programme nationally. Whilst at an early stage of analysis, the initial interviews and focus group discussions seem to largely corroborate, but add greater depth, to the findings from phase 1. Participants within the 2nd phase of the study were drawn from respondents to the survey who had indicated a willingness to participate. An open invitation was sent, and criteria were drawn up to select the sample, such that it was representative of respondents to the survey as a whole: the SIMD (Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation) status of the school; urban/rural; sector (primary, secondary/special education); and gender of the participant. Participants attended a short briefing and informed consent was gained. Whilst the initial intention had been to conduct data-gathering face-to-face, this proved to be too complex to organise and interviews and focus group discussions were held via. Zoom and Microsoft Teams. Data is being analysed via. thematic analysis, drawing on a framework of King and Horrocks, generating, initially, descriptive and analytical codes and then over-arching themes.
Expected Outcomes
The findings will reveal the challenges that prospective headteachers have faced in meeting the demands of a rapidly shifting policy landscape in the midst of a pandemic and the means by which they have sought to support their school communities (pupils, staff and engagement with families) in the recovery period. It will explore changing conceptualisations of the role of headteacher and, drawing on Gale & Parker’s theory of ‘transition as becoming’ (Gale, 2021) and Jindal-Snape et al’s (2021) Multiple and Multi-dimensional Transitions (MMT) Theory extrapolated to this context, how this impacts on the identity of the aspiring headteacher, particularly when leading in times of crisis. It will provide insight into the approaches that they have adopted and their perceived efficacy which should inform the work of school leaders in Scotland and beyond. It will demonstrate how priorities may have changed over time as schools have moved into the recovery phase. It will enable insights to emerge regarding the national response to recovery and will also identify those aspects of the Into Headship programme which have provided IH students with the knowledge, understanding, skills-set, confidence and resilience to address the needs of their school community and areas in which the programme could be strengthened, insights which can inform the development of headship preparation programmes more widely. The findings will be disseminated through conference presentations, academic papers and a research brief for practitioners.
References
Beauchamp, G., Hulme, M., Clarke, L., Hamilton, L., & Harvey, J. A. (2021). ‘People Miss People’: A Study of School Leadership and Management in the Four Nations of the United Kingdom in the Early Stage of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Educational Management, Administration & Leadership, 49(web), 375-392. Gale, T., & Parker, S. (2014). Navigating Change: A Typology of Student Transition in Higher Education. Studies in Higher Education, 39(5), 734-753. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2012.721351 Jindal-Snape, D. J., Symonds, J. E., Hannah, E. F. S., & Barlow, W. (2021). Conceptualising Primary-Secondary School Transitions: A Systematic Mapping Review of Worldviews, Theories and Frameworks. Frontiers in Education, 6(540027). https://doi.org/https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/feduc.2021.540027/full Lee, J. (2020). Mental health effects of school closures during COVID-19. The Lancet Child and Adolescent Health, 4(6), 421. Mowat, J., G. (2023a). Building Community to Create Equitable, Inclusive and Compassionate Schools through Relational Approaches. Routledge. Mowat, J. G. (2023b). Working collaboratively with the school community to build inclusion for all. In R. J. R. Tierney, F. Erkican, K. (Ed.), International Encyclopaedia of Education Researching Disability Studies & Inclusive Education (3rd ed., pp. 85-97). Elsevier. Mowat, J. G. (in press). Establishing the medium to long-term impact of Covid-19 constraints on the socio-emotional wellbeing of impoverished children and young people (and those who are otherwise disadvantaged) during, and in the aftermath of, Covid-19. In M. Proyer, F. Dovigo, W. Veck & E. A. Seitigen (Eds.), Education in an Altered World: - Pandemic, Crises and Young People Vulnerable to Educational Exclusion. London: Bloomsbury. OECD (2020), "Coronavirus special edition: Back to school", Trends Shaping Education Spotlights, No. 21, OECD Publishing, Paris. Shum, A., Skripkauskaite, S., Pearcey, S., Waite, P., & Creswell, C. (2021). Report 10: Children and adolescents’ mental health: One year in the pandemic Co-Space Study: Covid-19: Supporting Parents, Adolescents and Children during Epidemics (Vol. 10). Oxford: University of Oxford. UNESCO, UNICEF, & The World Bank. (2020). What Have We Learnt? Findings from a survey of ministries of education on national responses to COVID-19. Retrieved from https://data.unicef.org/resources/national-education-responses-to-covid19/ UNICEF Data. (2020). How COVID-19 is changing the world: a statistical perspective (Vol 1 & 2). Retrieved from https://data.unicef.org/resources/how-covid-19-is-changing-the-world-a-statistical-perspective/ Wilkinson, R., & Pickett, K. (2018). The Inner Level: How more equal societies reduce stress, restore sanity and improve everyone's wellbeing. UK: Penguin Random House World Health Organisation. (2020). Mental health and psychosocial considerations during the COVID-19 outbreak. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/mental-health-considerations.pdf
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